“I think that ‘R’ is a really special undead guy,” says “Warm Bodies” star Teresa Palmer, responding to my question about what could have possibly attracted a beautiful young girl like her character Julie to the zombie who’s just eaten her boyfriend. “He has feelings, and he has great taste in music, and he nurtures her and takes care of her. And I think he sparks this light in her again, because he is so gentle and kind.”
And therein lies the unusual concept at the heart of the new film, which follows Palmer’s Julie – a young woman living in a harsh post-apocalyptic world that’s been ravaged by a zombie outbreak – as she begins falling for “R,” the undead flesh-eater who recently made a meal out of her boyfriend Perry (Dave Franco).
“She likes to look at life [as the] glass is half full,” says Palmer. “And because of that, that’s why she’s open to talking to ‘R’ and seeing this other side to him. He just breathes life back into her, and she does the same to him. And that’s what I think makes this pairing so beautiful.”
You know, minus all the boyfriend-killing stuff.
Also sitting down with me during the film’s recent junket was Palmer’s co-star Franco, who was kind enough to tell me how he might react in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
“I’m not very equipped for a zombie apocalypse,” he said. “I’m a small dude, I think I’m running for the hills. I’m hopefully grabbing a bow and arrow on the way and kinda just doing the Legolas thing from up top. And then once those arrows run out, I think I’m hiding until they find me and kill me. I don’t got a survival plan here.”
You can check out the rest of my chats with Palmer and Franco in the videos above and below.
“Warm Bodies” hits theaters this Friday.